Soluble coffee powders are normally deficient in the aromas found in fresh roasted and ground coffee due to loss of aromas during the production of the soluble coffee, especially during the drying operation. Previous attempts at replacing the aromas lost during the production of soluble coffee products have been disclosed in the prior art such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,148,070 issued to Mishkin et al. and 2,947,634 issued to Feldman et al. Both these patents teach the production of an aromatized oil which is then spray plated onto the surface of soluble coffee products. This spray plating step, however, results in a considerable loss of aromatics and the retention of the spray plated aroma, which is solely on the surface of the soluble coffee product, is not particularly great.
It would be desirable to aromatize soluble coffee products by a process which does not lose significant amounts of volatiles during the aromatization process and which stabilizes the aromatized coffee product such that significant amounts of aroma are retained by the product even when subjected to prolonged exposure to room conditions.